Cell phone plans in Europe

[Kayzmum]

Some friends and I are going on a 10-day trip to Europe to include Rome, Sicily, Greek Isles, Turkey and Greece. This will be in October, and it's my first trip abroad. I currently have T-Mobile and will upgrade to their best plan for travel but wondered if I would get a better cell signal or better internet speed with Verizon or another carrier? From what I've read online, T Mobile has good coverage in the US but couldn't find anything about Europe. I only got one bar in Niagara Falls, Ontario, last week and slower-than-a-turtle internet but I was only on T-Mobile's basic plan at that time. I've never had that problem anywhere in the States, so far.

 

[Sunset]

You can sign up for google Fi , before you go. It would be $50 for 30 days, unlimited, works in most countries.
You can see what countries it doesn't work in before signing up.
Then cancel before the 30 days are up or it will renew for another. Can switch plans and cancel all on the app.

https://fi.google.com/about/

 

[savory]

We are on one of theses t-mobile plans for many years and many international trips, but am not sure which one. “Go5G Plus, Go5G, MAX, Plus, Magenta, ONE, and Simple Choice plans give you unlimited texting and data at up to 256kpbs in more than 215 countries and destinations at no extra charge, while voice calls are $0.25/minute.”

Our European trips have included Italy but not the other countries you plan to visit. Having said that, with all of the countries we have travelled in Europe, Asia & S. America, service and connections have been exactly what we needed. We could not be more pleased with our T Mobil service.

BTW, we also get good coverage in Canada. We just were in Buffalo and took a bike ride across the Peace Bridge. We were only there for a couple of hours. We needed to consult Google Maps to get back to the bridge for our return to the States. G Maps worked great.

 

[TheWizard]

You can sign up for google Fi , before you go. It would be $50 for 30 days, unlimited, works in most countries.
You can see what countries it doesn't work in before signing up.
Then cancel before the 30 days are up or it will renew for another. Can switch plans and cancel all on the app.

https://fi.google.com/about/

Or you can just stay on Google Fi indefinitely, like me...

 

[savory]

We are on one of theses t-mobile plans for many years and many international trips, but am not sure which one. “Go5G Plus, Go5G, MAX, Plus, Magenta, ONE, and Simple Choice plans give you unlimited texting and data at up to 256kpbs in more than 215 countries and destinations at no extra charge, while voice calls are $0.25/minute.”

Our European trips have included Italy but not the other countries you plan to visit. Having said that, with all of the countries we have travelled in Europe, Asia & S. America, service and connections have been exactly what we needed. We could not be more pleased with our T Mobil service.

BTW, we also get good coverage in Canada. We just were in Buffalo and took a bike ride across the Peace Bridge. We were only there for a couple of hours. We needed to consult Google Maps to get back to the bridge for our return to the States. G Maps worked great.

Given the other posts, I just looked at Google FI, it is very close if not the same as our T-Mobile plan the 4 of us are on. We have been paying around $100 for 4 phones. But given what I just reviewed, I would shop them both as it appears the costs are close and I am happy with my Google Voice performance for calls and text.

 

[audreyh1]

Some friends and I are going on a 10-day trip to Europe to include Rome, Sicily, Greek Isles, Turkey and Greece. This will be in October, and it's my first trip abroad. I currently have T-Mobile and will upgrade to their best plan for travel but wondered if I would get a better cell signal or better internet speed with Verizon or another carrier? From what I've read online, T Mobile has good coverage in the US but couldn't find anything about Europe. I only got one bar in Niagara Falls, Ontario, last week and slower-than-a-turtle internet but I was only on T-Mobile's basic plan at that time. I've never had that problem anywhere in the States, so far.

T-Mobile has great coverage in Europe.

Google FI uses the T-Mobile network.

 

[Aerides]

Another vote for full time google fi, super easy and inexpensive, works (almost) everywhere. - on a cruise in the bahamas it noted we were close to Cuba so told us nope, not here mate.

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

T-mobile is a German company. Good coverage throughout Europe.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I used my T-Mobile international coverage a lot in May with very good success. Just like being home. Italy, Greece, Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Spain.

 

[Eucerin]

T-Mobile has great coverage in Europe.

Google FI uses the T-Mobile network.

We are just thinking about the cellphone coverage abroad as we are going to Asia countries in September, and Europe in February next year.
We have Verizon service and believe they have international plan, but if Google Fi works better, we rather download the app. But even then, we still need to purchase sim card in order to have a phone function and use to google fi.
its my assumption. The while IT thing is way over my head

 

[Teacher Terry]

I used Airalo which emailed me a SIM card. It cost 20 for a month and covered 20 countries.

 

[OldShooter]

We are just thinking about the cellphone coverage abroad as we are going to Asia countries in September, and Europe in February next year.

In Asia, check coverage. Big, relatively modern countries are OK, but FI had no coverage for us in Vietnam or Myanmar a couple of years ago. Maybe different now.

We have Verizon service and believe they have international plan, but if Google Fi works better, we rather download the app. But even then, we still need to purchase sim card in order to have a phone function and use to google fi. ...

No app needed although I think there is one to check usage and billing. SIM card is free. Think of FI as just another provider but with special capabilities.

Another neat thing is that you can get free data-only SIM cards to use in tablet computers that have cell modems. I have one in my Samsung tablet. Very handy for surfing, checking email, etc. There is no cost for this except the regular data charges. I think they will give a customer up to three of the data-only SIMs.

 

[mn54]

for those with t-mobile. any incoming call or voicemail is an extra fee in europe. do you put your phone on airplane mode when not being used? or simply have it turned off? will be going to italy later this year. as far as canada goes, it works perfectly with no extra fees.

 

[FIREd_2015]

I purchased an Orange SIM card from Amazon for a recent trip to Europe. There are quite a few variations available depending on the countries, data limit and number of days so make sure you select one that meets your needs. I didn't need a large data limit since there were quite a few public WiFi hotspots but the one thing that I found annoying with them was that they required a login access code sent via SMS text.

 

[audreyh1]

for those with t-mobile. any incoming call or voicemail is an extra fee in europe. do you put your phone on airplane mode when not being used? or simply have it turned off? will be going to italy later this year. as far as canada goes, it works perfectly with no extra fees.

No. I rarely get incoming calls, but the very few I have received I was on WiFi calling. WiFi calling - no fee for calls from the US with T-Mobile.

Family tends to text, email or use Facetime.

I never put my phone in airplane mode unless on a plane. I leave the phone on all the time in Europe. I use it quite heavily in Europe.

$0.25 per minute isn’t a killer anyway.

 

[Eucerin]

In Asia, check coverage. Big, relatively modern countries are OK, but FI had no coverage for us in Vietnam or Myanmar a couple of years ago. Maybe different now.

No app needed although I think there is one to check usage and billing. SIM card is free. Think of FI as just another provider but with special capabilities.

Another neat thing is that you can get free data-only SIM cards to use in tablet computers that have cell modems. I have one in my Samsung tablet. Very handy for surfing, checking email, etc. There is no cost for this except the regular data charges. I think they will give a customer up to three of the data-only SIMs.

Thank you for this. That's alot detail and sounds complicated. I will do some study on this, and maybe go to best buy for help

 

[rodi]

We have T-Mobile and spent a month in Italy this spring. We did not use it for calls, just texting and data. We used Whatsapp for calls since all of the cousins are on Whatsapp as well as the various Airbnb landlords. I did upgrade to the travel plan for this trip since it was a month long trip. On a previous trip through Puglia I hadn't upgraded and they sent an email after, saying that I should buy a travel plan if it's more than just a week or so. You could probably get away with not buying the travel plan if you are only going 10 days.

 

[audreyh1]

I was in Europe for 2 months once and didn’t need a travel plan with T-Mobile. Many other years I was there for at least 4 weeks and no issues. My plan already covered international text, data and calling.

 

[Surewhitey]

At&t worked well in Portugal, Spain, Azores & Italy. Just had to add the international option for $35. Only 7 days though.

 

[omni550]

A Pro Tip: On the subject of phones...while traveling to different time zones, you may want to set yours up for "Do Not Disturb" between the hours of your bedtime and your rising time.

I (and my cousin's entire house!) was rudely awakened when some random U.S. lawn fertilizer company called me at 1:22 AM German time!

I'd never set up the Do Not Disturb on prior trips as I get few incoming calls and my friends all know when I travel, so they text if they want to reach me. Needless to say I immediately set up DND on my phone.

omni

 

[Aerides]

A Pro Tip: On the subject of phones...while traveling to different time zones, you may want to set yours up for "Do Not Disturb" between the hours of your bedtime and your rising time.

I have this on at home as well. It's silences not just phone calls, but notifications and other chimes on your phone.

 

[Markola]

In 2022 we were with Visible, which is cheap but only works in the US or, at least, North America. When we went to Europe we switched our iPhones SIM cards to GoogleFi, which worked great there. However, switching back to Visible later was a complete pain in the tush.

We solved the issue for future travels by switching to T-Mobile Magenta 55.

 

[audreyh1]

A Pro Tip: On the subject of phones...while traveling to different time zones, you may want to set yours up for "Do Not Disturb" between the hours of your bedtime and your rising time.

I (and my cousin's entire house!) was rudely awakened when some random U.S. lawn fertilizer company called me at 1:22 AM German time!

I'd never set up the Do Not Disturb on prior trips as I get few incoming calls and my friends all know when I travel, so they text if they want to reach me. Needless to say I immediately set up DND on my phone.

omni

Absolutely do this - even at home as I have family overseas and the occasional error call.